Nikki Finke Is Back

Nikki Finke has published two posts on her blog, Nikkifinke.com. One's her "I'm back and here's why" screed, and the other is a routine item about what Warners is doing at Comic-Con. Let's see how she does on her own, filing every day. She's had some time off to recharge her batteries, and may have some strong stuff stored up.

As of midday on Thursday, Nikki Finke had published two posts on her blog, Nikkifinke.com. One was her "I'm back and here's why" screed (complete with what's wrong with Deadline), and the other was a routine item about what Warners is doing at Comic-Con. Let's see how she does on her own, filing every day. She's had seven months off (due to an non-compete clause) to recharge her batteries, and may have some strong stuff stored up.

The site she founded in 2005, Deadline, was better with Finke than without her, although the folks who work there, from owner Jay Penske on down, are a lot happier not having to deal with her every day. He tried to get her back as a columnist who didn't have any control over anything else on the site, but that was unacceptable to her. As far as she's concerned, it's her site. She never came to terms with the fact that it was his.

Now she's back being the indie that she wants to be. Will people read her? Some. Will studios advertise with her? We will see. Somehow I doubt this will be another cash cow. She won't be posting with significant volume. She's wealthy, she doesn't need money. She can spout and exhort and excoriate to her heart's content. The meaner and more vile she is, the more people will read her. She has a voice that rings loud and clear.

Will she still wring executive necks and threaten law suits and bully people into giving her scoops? We shall see if the town is willing to get back into that abusive relationship. (The media is fanning the flames: here's The Washington Post's breathless welcome back Nikki story.)

Thompson on Hollywood

Born and raised in Manhattan, Anne Thompson grew up going to the Thalia and The New Yorker and wound up at grad Cinema Studies at NYU. She worked at United Artists and Film Comment before heading west as that magazine's west coast editor. She wrote for the LA Weekly, Sight and Sound, Empire, The New York Times and Entertainment Weekly before serving as West Coast Editor of Premiere. She wrote for The Washington Post, The London Observer, Wired, More, and Vanity Fair, and did staff stints at The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. She eventually took her blog Thompson on Hollywood to Indiewire. She taught film criticism at USC Critical Studies, and continues to host the fall semester of “Sneak Previews” for UCLA Extension.